Grey’s anatomy for the artist.

I’d never watched Greys’ Anatomy; I thought it looked stupid but a few weeks ago I was ill and so ended up watching it back to back on television. It’s annoyingly addictive and as a result, just a few short weeks later, I’ve now watched just about every episode there is. My favourite character is Christina because not only is she super hard core, she’s also chronically messy (like me) and she gets the best men. Sorry, but Burke’s way sexier than McDreamy and Dr. Hunt can strangle me anytime.

Dr. Hunt...we love a man in uniform

So yeah, if you don’t watch Grey’s Anatomy, all this is not very interesting.

I’m not here to talk to you about the show though. I’m here to talk to you about its namesake ‘Gray’s Anatomy’ by Henry Gray which, in case you don’t know, is a medical text book depicting very detailed drawings of bones, muscles, and organs. It’s much celebrated as the ‘anatomy bible’ and despite being over fifty years old, I believe it’s still used by Med students today.

So what does all this have to with art? Well…if you’d like to draw the human body I would very much recommend you grab yourself a copy of this book. It’s virtually impossible to accurately draw a person without having some basic knowledge of underlying bone and muscle structure. Gray’s will teach you this. However, If you’re starting out in drawing and are feeling a little daunted; it may be better to buy yourself an ‘anatomy for the artist’ book (which will be more tailored to your needs than Gray’s). Take the book and draw from it a few skeletons and muscle groups. You’ll be surprised how much it’ll improve your drawing if you know what the skin’s lying on.

Here endeth the lesson

Some random muscle drawings (by me)